General Question(s) on Group content and midgame

[DawgPilez]

I'm considering joining a Free company, but I wasn't sure if there is an incentive to join a free company that is (mostly) aligned with one of the grand companies.

1. Is there a point of Grand Companies in mid-late game... at all?
2. Are DoH meant mostly for mending (except CUL) and getting GC seals?
3. The only point in capping levels for beginner jobs are for skills?
4. Is it better for farm gear for the class you aren't playing (i.e. I farm gear for my future monk on my Conj)?
5. Is there a point playing a beginner class at endgame?
6. I just begin the arduous task of getting enough seals to get a choco license which means I've started crafting/gather albeit softcore (I've played too many games where crafting is a time/cash sink. I'm deciding to stay away from crafting this time around). What other things should I consider doing, need to do, or stop doing?

[Spoekes]

1. Lore-Wise yes. In terms of actual gameplay I can only think of the new Battleground (3 Teams - one of each GC).
2. There are many more things than mending, too short of time to list all the things you can only craft and not buy of vendors (ie. vanity stuff)
3. yeah, cross skills. ANd, of course, you can play the class ^^
4. If you are on WHM and have a monk in your group, he can roll need while you can only roll greed. Other than that, it's up to you.
5. no.
6. Easiest way to get seals is by doing FATEs - no need to craft for this at all.

Edit:
Free Company can offer you some advantages:
- Buffs (ie. EXP Bonus in Battle)
- Housing (advance your chocobo, gardening...)
- Community

[Erendis]

6. Easiest way to get seals for chocobo is to do GC hunting log. You do not even need to complete first rank to have enough, just do Halatali and few other monsters.

[Bixby]

1. As in a point to joining one at all? Yeah, chocobo license, lots of items purchasable with seals (fill-in for equipment you're lacking, glamour, mounts & minions, crafting mats to sell if absolutely nothing else). If you mean does it matter which one you join? Only if you're into PvP and/or glamour. PvP is split up by GC, and the glamour gear varies.
2. Mending, glamour, making tons of gil. There's some crafted gear that, when fully melded, can be very competitive with high-end raid/token gear, even if the item level is lower (e.g., it's popular for tanks to wear crafted & melded jewelry instead of raid/token jewelry when they're pushing high end encounters).
3. You mean classes? You can't not level them. A job is a piece of equipment. When you level WHM, you're actually leveling CNJ.
4. I've never really "farmed" for gear for future classes, but I'll take anything that I happen across.
5. No.
6. FATES, GC leves, GC hunting log, and turn-ins.

[Naria]

GC seals after 50 are mostly used to purchase consumables, respec items, materials for the higher level crafting, or alternatively gear if you are leveling a new class. Crafting is very useful, although mostly not to make endgame gear. Some of the uses are to make spiritbonding gear, housing items, vanity gear and minions. Other ways to get GC seals include daily guildhest and low level roulettes. If you have access to it, I'd also recommend doing your GC hunt log for some quick seals.

[DawgPilez]

Thanks for the tips on seals (along with everything else). I do wish they changed how the beginner classes worked. Lvl 30 is the highest lvl req for a basic class outside of skills. Seems like a time sink to make you level further (old gripe I'm sure).

IDK if glamour is worth investing in atm. I like the idea, but I wasn't sure if the glamour pieces you made are item bound and not transferable (or not requiring Ca$h). All I know is that I want a monocle... but it would be a PITA to have to keep making a monocle for every headgear I get (I'm sure I don't understand the process). That being said, I doubt it's anything I would need to pay attention to until endgame.

I wasn't able to do a GC hunt (on the hunting bill in Ul'dah). Maybe they were already done or something. I figure I'll do a conjunction of hunts/fates/leves/and crafting. I would like to at least level up CUL since I like fishing and CUL is useful all around. Carpenter seemed useful as an intermediary for other DoH. But... I figure I will stick a 2 or more 3 DoH and focus mainly on DoL. Easy money to be made even if I farm for myself. It's relaxing in this game (well at least low level DoL).

I probably need to look up a leveling guide, not for 'how to level', but more of when are good times to switches classes to get cross-skills. I'm setting here wit that parry buff from Lancer on my CNJ knowing full well I could do better. it's somewhat reminiscent of the FFXI system though it was fully about 1 other class versus a bunch of others (and with the enforced limit breaks, you didn't need to level up a class to high if you didn't want to... that and there weren't many viable sub classes.). I was thinking doing Arcanist to keep up with the healing motif. Considering the new classes coming out, it's probably in my interest to level up ARC, MAR, thaumaturge, GLD, and ROG [only figuring that unless SOE adds a new base class, which is likely, that these are the likely other basic classes that will be requirements due to known information and that they are the least required base classes].

Final question I can think of: is pvp is important? I don't feel this is my game for pvp, but I would like something more interactive with the server (like those assault modes in ffxi). I never got into those vs npc things such as Assault in ffxi due to me playing really late (i.e. no one was doing them) and it's pretty poor reward system. I really like that idea, but power-creep and poor implementation and management made it completely useless/unpopular (bases on the history I read both on the wiki, ingame community, and on the forums)..

[Bixby]

I wasn't able to do a GC hunt (on the hunting bill in Ul'dah). Maybe they were already done or something.

Hunts and your Hunting Logs are two different things. Every class gets a Hunting Log, which gives you XP bonuses for killing X number of certain specific enemies, broken into 10-level groups. Each Grand Company also has a Hunting Log, which gives a lot of bonus Company Seals for killing specific enemies, many of which are located inside dungeons.

Hunts are a separate system, with B rank, A rank, and S rank overworld named monsters to kill. S ranks have specific spawn conditions after a long timer has passed (30ish hours, depending on the mark), and require a few parties working together to kill. A ranks spawn every 30-60 minutes, and take about a party to kill. B ranks are for solo level 50 players, and spawn 5 seconds after they're killed. B ranks only give rewards if you have them as your weekly mark. There are also daily marks, which are regular monsters and FATE monsters. To do B ranks and dailies, you need to unlock the feature (at max rank with your GC) and use the bill you found. You can get rewards from A and S ranks without unlocking anything, but before level 50, you won't be contributing much, so you won't get much. Hunts reward Allied Seals, which is a different currency from Company Seals.

If you want to do PvP, you can PvP. If you want to ignore it, you can. There's nothing there that you really need for any of the PvE parts of the game. It can be a source some things you could get otherwise (tokens), but it's just an option, not the only source and not the best source.

[Garlyle]

Re: Jobs - Think of your Job as an upgrade you equip over your normal class. Yes, you don't get it until 30, but you won't be set back at all when you get it.

For cosmetics, keep things around that you think look nice. After level 50, one of the things you'll unlock is Glamouring - using catalysts to 'override' the way a piece of gear looks with another piece of gear.

Cross-classes are up to the individual. You'll need level 15 in one specific alternate class for your job (Conjurer will need 15 Arcanist to get White Mage for instance), and then there's only two classes you can cross-class from when you are in your job (This sounds like a downgrade but in practice you're rarely losing any actually valuable abilities compared to the awesome techniques your job grants you). Any caster wants Swiftcast from Thaumaturge 26 as soon as reasonably possible; Marauders want Provoke from 22 Gladiator; the rest is "whenever you feel like it" or "before super endgame content".

[Naria]

As Bixby said, Hunts and the Hunting Log are different things. To access your hunting log select Main Menu ->Logs -> Hunting Log. There will be icons for all of the classes and your Grand Company. Click on the Hunting log you want and it will bring up the list of mobs to kill. Hovering over the mob name on the list will tell you what zone/area they are in. For the Grand Company hunting Log, some of the mobs are in dungeons.

When you get access to Glamours at level 50 you can glamour an item on to another multiple times, so long as that class/job can equip it (you can not glamour Disciple of Magic gear on Warrior for example). The item used as a glamour is not destroyed and remains in your inventory.

[Estellios]

Thanks for the tips on seals (along with everything else). I do wish they changed how the beginner classes worked. Lvl 30 is the highest lvl req for a basic class outside of skills. Seems like a time sink to make you level further (old gripe I'm sure).

IDK if glamour is worth investing in atm. I like the idea, but I wasn't sure if the glamour pieces you made are item bound and not transferable (or not requiring Ca$h). All I know is that I want a monocle... but it would be a PITA to have to keep making a monocle for every headgear I get (I'm sure I don't understand the process). That being said, I doubt it's anything I would need to pay attention to until endgame.

You might be misunderstanding Classes and Jobs. When you unlock a job you do not start at level 1. The job is basically something you equip that modifies the Class into something more specialized, so leveling either Conjurer or White Mage levels them both. Arcanists can become both Scholars and Summoners so leveling any of the 3 levels up all 3.

Glamour is unlocked at level 50 but until you get there just keep any items you like the appearance of. Glamours use a consumable to make a piece of gear look like another, but it does not get rid of either pieces of gear, only the consumable. So if you want to use a monocle you only need one and can keep reusing it when you get new gear.

Also for cross class skills, if you unlock a class you can look at its ability list and see what it can learn. White Mage can pull from Arcanist and Thaumaturge. Arcanist to 15 is required to unlock White Mage, but if you take it to 34 you get the surprisingly useful Eye for an Eye skill which has a chance to debuff enemy attacks when your target is struck.

Thaumaturge to 26 is highly recommended as it gives you Swiftcast which makes your next spell instant cast and is incredibly useful. You don't particularly need it while leveling up but if you wish to spend the time on it it is well worth it. You will definitely want to prioritize getting it once you hit level cap, though.

For Free Companies, their affiliation with specific Grand Companies has absolutely no bearing on anything except where leaders need to go to purchase company buffs or where members need to go to apply the FC crest to gear. The most important thing when looking for a FC is to join one that matches your playstyle and has people you like playing with.